Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Speaker 1: Kate Torbert and coming up on today's show, Olivia Rodgers
Speaker 1: exes continue to cause headaches and the Matilda Jurf toilet
Speaker 1: scrubbing scandal. The first UK influencer, Saffron Barker, is continuing
Speaker 1: to soft launch her new boyfriend. So you are across
Speaker 1: all of this. I am heavily invested in this. I
Speaker 1: actually started following her new boyfriend as soon as I
Speaker 1: worked out who he is, because she has been doing
Speaker 1: daily Christmas flogs, vlogmus and randomly this Scottish male voice
Speaker 1: just started appearing in the background and she started referring
Speaker 1: to him as babe. Is very clear that this guy
Speaker 1: is basically living at her house. He's like this live
Speaker 1: in boyfriend that we haven't been introduced. So I noticed
Speaker 1: that something was amiss because the camera angle suddenly changed
Speaker 1: because he was filming. I'm guessing he's quite tall. Well,
Speaker 1: he is actually a model. That's what I've worked out
Speaker 1: from my stalking, So he is very tall, He's fit,
Speaker 1: he likes to take a lot of topless selfies, his
Speaker 1: selfies and Instagram game is a bit cringe. Is that
Speaker 1: what you're following? Well, he's not really my type because
Speaker 1: he's traditionally fabulous looking like a very good looking guy,
Speaker 1: but the way he posts almost makes him unattractive. Well
Speaker 1: the fact he's like early twenties as well. I looked
Speaker 1: up on Google, like I googled who is that from
Speaker 1: Barker's boyfriend, And when I clicked on his Instagram, I
Speaker 1: was like, why the hell is Sophie following him? Because
Speaker 1: he's only got what six thousand? Well, I did feel
Speaker 1: like a bit of a creep because he only had
Speaker 1: around three and four thousand when I first started following him,
Speaker 1: and obviously he's gained more followers over time. To me,
Speaker 1: I get the vibe that he's very keen to be
Speaker 1: involved in the vlogs. He's become a permanent fixture, like
Speaker 1: kind of a main character, even though we've only seen
Speaker 1: sort of the side of his face or him in
Speaker 1: the background in a mirror, because he's hanging out with
Speaker 1: her family a lot, which is also very weird. Because
Speaker 1: I want to say, for those any new listeners, we
Speaker 1: have been talking a lot about Saffron Barker's relationships this
Speaker 1: year because at the start of the year, she had
Speaker 1: a huge breakup with a guy called Lewis Rhys Zammitt,
Speaker 1: who actually ended up getting a spot on the Chief's lineup,
Speaker 1: well a rookie spot. Well, I mean he might not
Speaker 1: even be on the list anymore. I haven't and he
Speaker 1: dramatically cheated on her and all came out. So Saffron
Speaker 1: has a relationship podcast, and she was very forthcoming with
Speaker 1: saying that she's learnt her lesson. She's not going to
Speaker 1: be sharing every single detail about her a new partner
Speaker 1: if she gets one, So it's clear she's trying to
Speaker 1: do a different tactic. She thinks, Okay, he's going to
Speaker 1: be in all of my stuff, but I'm not going
Speaker 1: to introduce him. I'm not going to show his face yet.
Speaker 1: But that being said, it seems to be very serious
Speaker 1: already because he's pretty much living with her. I don't
Speaker 1: think a lot has changed, though she might be soft
Speaker 1: launching him at the moment, but his voice is still
Speaker 1: on there. It's still clear that she has a boyfriend
Speaker 1: and they're quite serious. Plus, she is known for dating
Speaker 1: people who live very far away from her, so her
Speaker 1: most recent boyfriend, Lewis, he actually lived in Wales and
Speaker 1: she was in Brighton in the UK, and then he
Speaker 1: of course moved to the US. And now this guy
Speaker 1: is from Scotland. So it seems like she has this
Speaker 1: particular type. And I'm wondering if he's spewing that he's
Speaker 1: not actually been able to be shown on the vlogs.
Speaker 1: Surely he will soon though, because he's been posting instagrams
Speaker 1: at her house while Saffron's away in New York. Well
Speaker 1: he's house sitting. Yeah, so Saffron is away in New
Speaker 1: York with her parents and he's looking after the house
Speaker 1: and he is posting about this house almost as though
Speaker 1: it's his own. He did a photo dump and has
Speaker 1: showed him in the kitchen cooking up a meal. And
Speaker 1: then he was in Saffron's gym. He took a photo
Speaker 1: a gym selfie of course, with her car fully visible
Speaker 1: in the backgrounds. That's a red flat. A lot of
Speaker 1: people online are saying that they hope he's not using
Speaker 1: her house to lure other girls there and pretend that
Speaker 1: it's his house. Puly not. I think that's he actually
Speaker 1: seems quite nice from what I've seen in the vlogs.
Speaker 1: But my only concern is this from what I've heard,
Speaker 1: but it's a case of deja vou, isn't it? Because
Speaker 1: this time last year that's when Saffron Hard launched her
Speaker 1: relationship with Lewis, and she also shared a log of
Speaker 1: them picking up her Christmas trip. I just hope that
Speaker 1: we don't see her a eyeing her and the new
Speaker 1: boyfriend's future kids, her getting any tattoos of his initials.
Speaker 1: I think she needs to play it a bit more
Speaker 1: cool because I'm a big Saffron Barker fan. She is
Speaker 1: one of my favorite influences that I follow after Molly
Speaker 1: may So I just hope the best for her. She
Speaker 1: always seems to be have no trouble getting boyfriends, but
Speaker 1: it just seems to be maybe she picks the wrong guy. Well.
Speaker 1: I also think she must have met him on Raya
Speaker 1: because that's where she met her last boyfriend. It's all
Speaker 1: these bloody models and athletes on there. She just needs
Speaker 1: to date someone that's normal. But I think that this
Speaker 1: guy might actually work for her because he doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to have much of a modeling career, like he doesn't
Speaker 1: seem to be busy that's he that he's using her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what a lot of people are worried about. But
Speaker 1: he please not can work in the sense that she
Speaker 1: probably just wants someone to be around. I'm going to
Speaker 1: put a prediction out here. She will hard launch him
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day. There'll be a family photo with him
Speaker 1: in it or a selfie of them to who are
Speaker 1: these guys that are so willing to meet the family
Speaker 1: so quickly and hang around with people's grandparents and nieces
Speaker 1: and nephews. She is worth a lot of money. Well,
Speaker 1: she's got a very glamorous family, very glamorous life. How
Speaker 1: she's a lovely girl, beautiful guy. I mean some people
Speaker 1: you know when you know you know? Excuse me? Can
Speaker 1: you just can you hold my phone and film me
Speaker 1: for a second? Please recording. Olivia Rodgers' ex boyfriend, Morgan
Speaker 1: Waterhouse has taken a swipe at the former Miss Universe
Speaker 1: contestant despite breaking up over a year ago. Kate, can
Speaker 1: you tell us more?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 1: Morgan has jumped on this TikTok trend about your Christmas
Speaker 1: wish list. So guys and girls are posting what they
Speaker 1: want in a partner, and they're saying Santa, can you
Speaker 1: please deliver this person? But he twisted it to seemingly
Speaker 1: throw shade at Olivia Rogers. So in the video, Morgan
Speaker 1: was casually sipping on a boost juice at the airport,
Speaker 1: and on the screen it said, dear Santa, five foot five, honest,
Speaker 1: obsessed with me, loves their family, doesn't cheat on me
Speaker 1: every time they leave the state. Hasn't won a beauty pageant,
Speaker 1: isn't a narcissist, doesn't gaslight me, loyal, loves puppies. Now
Speaker 1: I do need to point out he made a grammatical
Speaker 1: error with the word puppies, and a lot of people
Speaker 1: were annoyed in the comments about it. Now he added
Speaker 1: the caption at the bottom of the video, hope this
Speaker 1: reaches the North Pole as expected. This video blew up
Speaker 1: and at the time of recording it has over three
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand views and one eight hundred send on.
Speaker 1: So I think that there were a lot of people,
Speaker 1: or a lot of girls sending this on to their friends,
Speaker 1: being like, I can't believe the shade he has thrown
Speaker 1: at Olivia. It's interesting because there were two camps of
Speaker 1: comments there well, one lot of women who seemed very
Speaker 1: interested in Morgan. A lot of them were saying, oh,
Speaker 1: would you accept a different height? What about five four eight?
Speaker 1: And originally I thought, oh, wow, this is actually organically
Speaker 1: blown up. But if you dig deeper, he's actually deleted
Speaker 1: a lot of the negative comments that people were posting
Speaker 1: about how petty he was being. Yeah, because this video
Speaker 1: probably would have got even more views had he left
Speaker 1: some of those comments up.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: I was pretty quick to discover this video, and I
Speaker 1: saw not only people having a girl at him about it,
Speaker 1: but I saw people agreeing with him and having a
Speaker 1: bit of a laugh at Olivia's expense because he didn't
Speaker 1: try and conceal who he was speaking about. I mean
Speaker 1: the fact that he and his friends have immaturely come
Speaker 1: out before and accused her of cheating. You know, that
Speaker 1: line was fairly obvious about, oh, a girl that doesn't
Speaker 1: cheat on me every time she leaves the state. But
Speaker 1: then by backing it up by saying, you want a
Speaker 1: girl who hasn't been in a beauty paget, Yeah, you
Speaker 1: couldn't get more obvious. He may as well have said
Speaker 1: I want the opposite of Olivia Rodgers. Josh Moss from
Speaker 1: Love Island even waded into this, and he wrote the
Speaker 1: cheating every time she leaves the state. If you know,
Speaker 1: you know, that surprised me because I wouldn't think that
Speaker 1: you would want to be seen siding with Morgan Waterhouse.
Speaker 1: I quite like Josh Muss as well. That disappoints me. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: another influencer that's also weighed into this drama is Olivia White.
Speaker 1: So she said that she was inserting herself into something
Speaker 1: that had nothing to do with her. I mean, isn't
Speaker 1: that just TikTok in general? So basically her opinion was
Speaker 1: that this timing was very of considering what's been going
Speaker 1: down with Olivia Rogers's ex husband Justin mckin. Let's row
Speaker 1: to some of what she said. I don't think this
Speaker 1: is hitting how you want it to hit.
Speaker 2: And if it is hitting with said people, they're not
Speaker 2: the kind of people that you'd want around, do.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like, definitely not like.
Speaker 2: The type of people that you know, allegedly still a
Speaker 2: million dollars and have really serious drug problem, who you're
Speaker 2: like best friends with, so you know you are the
Speaker 2: company you keep. Just want to remind you that and
Speaker 2: you know maybe work on this because it's been a
Speaker 2: few years. It's been a few years, and clearly you're struggling,
Speaker 2: perhaps with seeing someone move on be happy, not with you,
Speaker 2: but you know, considering the company you've been keeping lately,
Speaker 2: I think that says more about you than it does
Speaker 2: about her.
Speaker 1: Now, this clap back from Olivia White went off, and
Speaker 1: she followed up with a second video sharing a photo
Speaker 1: of Morgan and Justin together, and she accused him of
Speaker 1: hitching his wagon on Olivia for his own personal gain
Speaker 1: and said he wasn't a good judge of character considering
Speaker 1: he befriended Justin. I thought that this was a bit
Speaker 1: of an interesting comment to say that because Morgan befriended Justin,
Speaker 1: it says a lot about his character. Now we know
Speaker 1: allegedly what Justin's been up to and been into, but
Speaker 1: by that theory, isn't she also suggesting that it says
Speaker 1: a bit about Olivia's character because she was married to
Speaker 1: the guy. She was very much defending Olivia Rodgers. But
Speaker 1: I did draw that parallel because I was like, well,
Speaker 1: unfortunately Olivia Rodgers is connected to both of these guys
Speaker 1: that don't have good characters. But normally when it's a woman,
Speaker 1: we pass it off as oh, they just a bad guy.
Speaker 1: I suppose the difference is that Olivia has dumped both
Speaker 1: of these guys. She has distanced herself, whereas Morgan, as
Speaker 1: soon as he and Olivia broke up, he spitefully met
Speaker 1: up the I mean, he just looked like a total knob,
Speaker 1: do it. Do you find it a bit hypocritical though,
Speaker 1: because if this was a woman who was scorned and
Speaker 1: cheated on and she put up an Instagram post out
Speaker 1: with this guy's ex'es and having a great time exchanging notes,
Speaker 1: everyone be like, go girl. But because it's a boy,
Speaker 1: everyone's like fucking petty as fuck. Yeah. But I think
Speaker 1: now that we have an insight into what was going
Speaker 1: on behind the scenes of Olivia and Justin's marriage, and
Speaker 1: she obviously would have shared that with Morgan, it just
Speaker 1: makes him look even worse. And the fact that Olivia
Speaker 1: and Morgan broke up so long ago, like maybe if
Speaker 1: he had come out after their breakup and had done
Speaker 1: an interview or something a bit classier than some sort
Speaker 1: of TikTok immature well gibe at her, well, people would
Speaker 1: have gone, oh, I feel sorry for Morgan. If he
Speaker 1: had been cheated on, but he's only ever alluded to
Speaker 1: it in really kind of icky way. I think it
Speaker 1: was how he got his friends involved. To swagger off
Speaker 1: in the comments section, well, you're actually talking about an
Speaker 1: incident that happened this time last year, if you can
Speaker 1: believe it, so nearly to the day. So basically we
Speaker 1: all knew that OLIVERA and Morgan had broken up because
Speaker 1: he'd got mia on her Instagram shortly after their trip
Speaker 1: to Balley in August. And she finally addressed all these
Speaker 1: breakup rumors in a Q and A in December, and
Speaker 1: she wrote, I am single. My ex is a lovely person.
Speaker 1: Sometimes things just don't work out, and she went on
Speaker 1: to say that she was planning to keep her future
Speaker 1: relationships more private on social media because it's so tricky
Speaker 1: to navigate a breakup, particularly when people are invested online.
Speaker 1: And it's quite interesting because now that we know more
Speaker 1: about the timeline, she started dating her new boyfriend Hugo
Speaker 1: in December, so that's when she actually had to put
Speaker 1: this information out that, yeah, me and Morgan have broken
Speaker 1: up now. An hour after Olivia shared this Q and
Speaker 1: A last December, Morgan responded with a cryptic quote that
Speaker 1: said loyal behind my back. That's my type. So meanwhile,
Speaker 1: influencer updates Au posted the news about the breakup to
Speaker 1: her feed, and she ended up getting an even juicier
Speaker 1: scoop in the process because Morgan's friends jumped in the
Speaker 1: comments to defend him and basically slag off Olivia. So
Speaker 1: one of them wrote that is because she wants to
Speaker 1: keep her six sexual partners a secret while dating Morgan,
Speaker 1: and then another one chimed in six, Haha, that's being nice,
Speaker 1: that's so fou. It was disgusting, and it really seemed
Speaker 1: like Morgan had instructed his friends to act like a
Speaker 1: mouthpiece for him. And this is the issue. All of
Speaker 1: these accusations being leveled at Olivia have been so slut shamy.
Speaker 1: And the interesting thing is, if this was five to
Speaker 1: ten years ago, everyone would have gone, oh my god
Speaker 1: and turned on Olivia and shamed her. But we're now
Speaker 1: living in twenty twenty four, we were like, this is
Speaker 1: actually disgusting. You know, these allegations have no factual basis
Speaker 1: at the moment. You know, you haven't even come out
Speaker 1: with any receipts to back then. I'm sure if he
Speaker 1: had the receipts, we'd be seeing them as well. I
Speaker 1: think another reason why people aren't buying Morgan's story or
Speaker 1: siding with him is because he's always come across as
Speaker 1: a bit of a cloud chaser. I mean, he and
Speaker 1: Olivia got together pretty soon after her breakup with her
Speaker 1: ex husband, and he always seemed to want to be
Speaker 1: very front and center in her content. It seemed very opportunistic,
Speaker 1: and it seemed like Morgan's video may have been in
Speaker 1: response to a TikTok that a live via shared earlier
Speaker 1: in the day, where it seemed like she took a
Speaker 1: dig at the men that she's previously dated. So she
Speaker 1: minded the song young Hearts Run Free, and in the caption,
Speaker 1: she wrote, I always used to think this was an
Speaker 1: upbeat love song, but recently really listened to the lyrics
Speaker 1: and realized it's actually about self love with a warning
Speaker 1: not to end up with someone who doesn't respect you.
Speaker 1: She then added, Candy's been warning people not to settle
Speaker 1: since nineteen seventy six. It's funny that he centered himself
Speaker 1: in this and thought, oh, it's a dig at me,
Speaker 1: because well, she was with Justin McKean for was it
Speaker 1: like four years beforehand got married to the guy all
Speaker 1: this news has broken about him recently. Yeah, but no, No,
Speaker 1: it's about Morgan Waterhouse, who she was in a rebound
Speaker 1: relationship with a couple of months. I thought it was
Speaker 1: fairly obvious it was a dig at justin McCann and
Speaker 1: not settling in a marriage that you were unhappy in. Well,
Speaker 1: it more so seems like he's a bit upset and
Speaker 1: jealous that Olivia's found love with this new guy who
Speaker 1: seems really lovely? Now? Is this remind me of Sydney Sweeney?
Speaker 1: Is this me? But he's got it? So as usual,
Speaker 1: Olivia Rogers was very classy about this whole thing, so
Speaker 1: she easily could have responded with her own dig at Morgan. However,
Speaker 1: she just shared a TikTok video with some happy snaps
Speaker 1: of her and a new boyfriend at the end of
Speaker 1: year celebration, and she referred to him as her favorite human,
Speaker 1: which I think was enough. It says a lot without
Speaker 1: having to say much. The timing of this is pretty
Speaker 1: terrible for Olivia because, as you touched on Kate, her
Speaker 1: ex husband was accused of allegedly stealing almost half a
Speaker 1: million dollars from his former employer to allegedly support a
Speaker 1: very serious drug habit, and the alleged theft came after
Speaker 1: his colleagues reported to their employer that Justin had been
Speaker 1: sleeping in the work toilets for up to four hours
Speaker 1: a day. It was reported in the press last week
Speaker 1: that Justin was meant to appear at a directions hearing
Speaker 1: in the Victorian Supreme Court. However, he was a no show,
Speaker 1: so the court had to extend a freezing order on
Speaker 1: his assets till April next year. So that means that
Speaker 1: he has to live on a of eight hundred dollars
Speaker 1: a week and that's for his ordinary living expenses and
Speaker 1: can pay up to ten thousand on reasonable legal expenses.
Speaker 1: It is becoming quite concerning because Justin hasn't made contact
Speaker 1: with his lawyer since November eleven, when he was contacted
Speaker 1: by lawyers acting for his former employer, so there are
Speaker 1: fears that he is potentially missing at the moment. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: to not show up in court is a big deal
Speaker 1: and it's clear that these allegations have really rocked him.
Speaker 1: He's deactivated his Instagram account and LinkedIn. I really hope
Speaker 1: that his family are looking after him and he's okay,
Speaker 1: because this is just awful watching this allt and I
Speaker 1: think that this is why a lot of people are
Speaker 1: rather outraged by Morgan's post, because the timing is just
Speaker 1: very off. I mean, I understand that this is Olivia's
Speaker 1: ex husband, but it's still going to be affecting her
Speaker 1: on a certain level. There's already so much speculation and
Speaker 1: attention on her for something that has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with it. She doesn't need even more of it from
Speaker 1: another ex pop. It just seems gross that he's piggybacking
Speaker 1: off this horrible moment in both Justin and Olivia's lives
Speaker 1: and trying to get attention from it. I also did
Speaker 1: my Vegan Collagen and Simos makes and I needed to
Speaker 1: get some work done before I headed to the office.
Speaker 1: Jen said it girl. An entrepreneur Matilda Jef has been
Speaker 1: accused of inflicting psychological terror on her employees at a
Speaker 1: hugely popular lifestyle brand, jurf Avenue. Eleven former and current
Speaker 1: employees made the startling claims on a Swedish documentary, accusing
Speaker 1: Matilda of bullying, fat phobia and what's been touted as
Speaker 1: the toilet scrubbing scandal. So before we get into it,
Speaker 1: can you bring us up to speed with who Matilda
Speaker 1: Jurf is. Yeah. Well, she is a twenty seven year
Speaker 1: old Swedish influencer and she has over four point five
Speaker 1: million followers across TikTok and Instagram. She's known for her
Speaker 1: signature bouncy blonde hair and having this really scandy, cool
Speaker 1: girl aesthetic. I feel like she's single handedly created hype
Speaker 1: around the dice and air rap as well. And she
Speaker 1: started gaining traction from documenting her travels with her boyfrid
Speaker 1: Friend and people really loved the aspirational nature of her
Speaker 1: posts and she quickly began making money through brand deals
Speaker 1: and also modeling. It's interesting now some of these claims
Speaker 1: have come to light to know that as a teenager,
Speaker 1: Matilda actually suffered from anarexia and orthorexia, which led her
Speaker 1: to become an advocate for mental health and body positivity.
Speaker 1: Now she has developed a very squeaky clean image. She's
Speaker 1: built this personal brand around being kind and she even
Speaker 1: earned herself the title of the Internet's Sweetheart. Today, she
Speaker 1: is known as being one of the most influential people
Speaker 1: not only in Sweden but the world, and in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: Matilda really took her career to the next level, so
Speaker 1: she founded lifestyle and fashion brand Jeff Avenue alongside her boyfriend,
Speaker 1: and this brand quickly resonated with a large global audience.
Speaker 1: So young girls fell in love with the clothing staples
Speaker 1: she had, hair products, homewhors Sophia. I feel like this
Speaker 1: is the sort of stuff that you would be purchased. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you've got to be living under
Speaker 1: a rock not to have seen the Jeff Avenue dressing gown.
Speaker 1: It's their signature dressing gown which has fruit all over it.
Speaker 1: I think literally every TikToker or everyday person who creates
Speaker 1: to get Ready with Me video is wearing this dressing gown. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I really wanted one when I was pregnant because every
Speaker 1: mummy TikToker was wearing it, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll look into that. It's a couple of hundred bucks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I dressing. When I looked up the price, I
Speaker 1: think it's actually close to four hundred dollars. Is absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna get vomped on it. Yeah. Well, this
Speaker 1: brand really took off during COVID and since then Jeff
Speaker 1: Avenue has had pop up stores in major cities like Stockholm, London,
Speaker 1: and New York. It's also collaborated with Fellow Girls. So
Speaker 1: Hailey Bieber and Sofia Richie have done collaborations with the brand.
Speaker 1: And it's so crazy because in such a short amount
Speaker 1: of time, Jeff Avenue has already reached thirty five million
Speaker 1: dollars in revenue, so it is enormous this brand. It's
Speaker 1: interesting because most people actually predicted that Matilda would have
Speaker 1: some sort of fall from grace because normally once you
Speaker 1: build up, people drag you down tall poppy syndrome, well,
Speaker 1: particularly if you have a squeaky clean image. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I thought that last year was that for her because
Speaker 1: she was involved in this dupe scandal. So the Jurf
Speaker 1: team noticed that smaller influencers were sharing dupes of their
Speaker 1: products and started reporting their videos on TikTok and at
Speaker 1: the time, the company shared a statement saying that intellectual
Speaker 1: property lawyers were flagging content that they believed infringe their copyright. Now,
Speaker 1: a lot of fans called Matilda out because they thought
Speaker 1: it was really hypocritical because she became so popular on
Speaker 1: TikTok for actually posting dupes of luxury designer items, and
Speaker 1: the backlash actually led to Matilda temporarily deactivating her account,
Speaker 1: and at the time a lot of large female creators
Speaker 1: came out to fiercely defend Matilda. They said that women
Speaker 1: are always held to different standards in business and that
Speaker 1: it was all part of tall poppy syndrome, and really
Speaker 1: this scandal has been the only chink in Matilda's armor
Speaker 1: until now this week, startling new claims made in a
Speaker 1: sweet this documentary and also picked up by Sweden's largest newspaper,
Speaker 1: have described Jeff Avenue's workplace as far from the polished
Speaker 1: facade because something that has really resonated with Jeff avenues
Speaker 1: gen Z audience was its commitment to inclusion and also sustainability.
Speaker 1: So on Jeff Avenue's website, it describes as workplace as
Speaker 1: a place of respect and inclusion and a place to
Speaker 1: create a supportive and inspiring environment. This sounds very cynical,
Speaker 1: but it's normally these type of places that have the
Speaker 1: exact opposite of that environment that they put The journalist
Speaker 1: Joanna Ekstrom has spoken to eleven format and current employees
Speaker 1: in this documentary who describe Jeff Avenue as a toxic workplace.
Speaker 1: They said that the company's outward image is nothing like
Speaker 1: the reality of working there. In fact, it is the
Speaker 1: complete opposite. Now, these employees appeared on camera, but they
Speaker 1: remained anonymous with their faces concealed, and it quickly became
Speaker 1: apparent how scared these women were of Matilda and also
Speaker 1: the potential repercussions that may come their way. Now, the
Speaker 1: majority of people working at Jeff Avenue are all young
Speaker 1: girls who presumably thought they'd landed their dream job working
Speaker 1: alongside this generation's it girl. I mean, when they probably
Speaker 1: got the job. Can you imagine the messaging their friends
Speaker 1: being like, I can't believe I get to work with her.
Speaker 1: It seems like this is on the next level, though,
Speaker 1: because someone has actually described it as everyday psychological terror
Speaker 1: that was being carried out in this office, Like that
Speaker 1: is next level. Yeah, It's clear that a lot of
Speaker 1: these employees were terrified of Matilda because one described her
Speaker 1: treatment as psychological violence. So the employee said that after
Speaker 1: working at Jeff Avenue she started to feel like she
Speaker 1: was losing herself and her mind. She described it as
Speaker 1: being in a destructive relationship. One other employee also said
Speaker 1: that she has never been so scared of a person
Speaker 1: in her whole life, alleging that Matilda would yell at
Speaker 1: employees in front of the whole office and she was
Speaker 1: scared every day that she would get a scolding, whilst
Speaker 1: as another said, I was scared of Matilda. I didn't
Speaker 1: like it when she was in the room. She was condescending.
Speaker 1: She could be disgusted by the fact that you took
Speaker 1: public transportation. There was this general vibe from the employees
Speaker 1: that Matilda thought that she was better than all of
Speaker 1: her staff, and they even said that she wouldn't say
Speaker 1: hello to a lot of them. Yeah. Another claim she
Speaker 1: would call them names and ask them if they were stupid.
Speaker 1: She also alleged that anything and everything would set Matilda off,
Speaker 1: saying she could yell at someone if there was no coffee,
Speaker 1: She could yell at someone if you were sitting in
Speaker 1: the wrong seat. She could yell at someone if her
Speaker 1: food hadn't been heated up, if there was anywhere that
Speaker 1: wasn't clean. She would completely lose her temper. Is it
Speaker 1: wrong that the whole time you were reading out these
Speaker 1: terrible accusations that I was just thinking, Wow, I'm shocked
Speaker 1: that she's so hands on in her business because a
Speaker 1: lot of influences you probably wouldn't see them at all.
Speaker 1: She's giving out the bollocking herself also. Yeah, but also
Speaker 1: a lot of influencers don't really operate in the day
Speaker 1: to day of their businesses. I'm not sticking up for me?
Speaker 1: Are you taking out off to it? And I think
Speaker 1: that's embarrassing is that it's such a different view that
Speaker 1: she put. That's what I'm trying to say. It's actually
Speaker 1: to her detriment. And maybe that's why a lot of
Speaker 1: influencers don't work in the operations of their business because
Speaker 1: it's probably best not for their personal brain. I actually
Speaker 1: heard Lucy and Nikki from The Wild Ones, and also
Speaker 1: Sammy Robinson who owns one Mile, talking about how difficult
Speaker 1: it is being influential and owning a brand, because they
Speaker 1: said they're often worried what people are going to say
Speaker 1: to their friends if they tell them off, or I
Speaker 1: feel like Matilda didn't have any of these worries. I
Speaker 1: know we're having a bit of a laugh about this,
Speaker 1: but some of these accusations are very serious because a
Speaker 1: lot of the workers spoke about having panic attacks after
Speaker 1: encounters with Matilda, and one claimed they developed anxiety after
Speaker 1: working with her. One employee also said that so many
Speaker 1: people were completely broken after working with her, and claimed
Speaker 1: that tears were a daily occurrence in the office. It
Speaker 1: shows how arrogant she is to think that these kind
Speaker 1: of allegations aren't going to get out there. I mean
Speaker 1: to surely she would have some idea how rudely she
Speaker 1: was speaking to the stuff, and to think that no
Speaker 1: one was going to say anything, it shows how powerful
Speaker 1: she thinks she is. I feel like for anyone who's
Speaker 1: thinking maybe these weren't that serious, this really puts into
Speaker 1: perspective because one employee said she realized she stopped eating,
Speaker 1: and after she quit at Jeff Avenue, she was walking
Speaker 1: along the street and she spotted Matilda and her boyfriend
Speaker 1: and she ended up collapsing in her partner's arms, just
Speaker 1: at the side of them and had a panic attack
Speaker 1: on the street. That's absolutely awful. Amy to what you
Speaker 1: said in terms of Matilda thinking that this wouldn't get
Speaker 1: out I'm assuming that Swedish laws are pretty similar to
Speaker 1: Australian in that you make employees sign a contract where
Speaker 1: they won't actually discuss anything that goes on in the business,
Speaker 1: so a lot of them probably were bound by some
Speaker 1: sort of gag order. Well, it seemed like she was
Speaker 1: also banking on the women being so terrified of her
Speaker 1: and the repercussion. It's just even general chitchat on the street, Like,
Speaker 1: even if you're bound by a confidentiality agreement, surely she
Speaker 1: would have been concerned about idle gossip from PEP, especially
Speaker 1: if they're all young women and they're the same demographic
Speaker 1: of people who follow her. Yeah. Well, I wonder if
Speaker 1: any disgruntled employees were involved in the last scandal dropping
Speaker 1: around the dupe and maybe they helped get that out
Speaker 1: into the public domain. Can we get into my favorite
Speaker 1: claims which are being made, and that is around a
Speaker 1: toilet scrubbing incident. So the workers made claims about favoritism
Speaker 1: culture where employees were moved up and down in the hierarchy.
Speaker 1: So they claimed if you couldn't work over time, you
Speaker 1: would automatically fall lower in rank, but if you did
Speaker 1: the right thing, you would fall into her favorites category.
Speaker 1: And one of the most shocking claims was that Matilda
Speaker 1: had her own private toilets so it was closed off
Speaker 1: to only her and her favorite employees. So in the documentary,
Speaker 1: they showed a photo that one of the employees had
Speaker 1: secretly snapped off the toilet door, so it had had
Speaker 1: this little hand written sign on it that said please
Speaker 1: don't use with a little love hut. Now, one day,
Speaker 1: allegedly that sign fell off and an employee used the
Speaker 1: toilet by mistake. They didn't understand the rules, maybe they
Speaker 1: were new, and when Matilda found out, she allegedly went
Speaker 1: nuts and made another employee scrub the toilet before she
Speaker 1: would use it again. Now, the employee said she doesn't
Speaker 1: even want to use the same toilet as us, when
Speaker 1: not people were not colleagues to her. Now, I have
Speaker 1: to say, I think that she is taking this whole
Speaker 1: clean girl aesthetic to a whole new level. Having a
Speaker 1: separate toilet that your colleagues and team members are not
Speaker 1: allowed to use. It's unpopular opinion. In no way do
Speaker 1: I think that this is correct, But I would actually
Speaker 1: have loved to have my own toilet at my work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure if a colleague accidentally used it, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't scold them and then punish them by making the
Speaker 1: scrubble clicks. Having worked sof and I worked in newsrooms.
Speaker 1: It's not as if the newsreaders have their own personal toilets.
Speaker 1: It's not as if they think that they're better than
Speaker 1: everybody her office, like is it behind glassdoor or something.
Speaker 1: My favorite part of this is that there's a note
Speaker 1: with like a little patronizing love heard on her they
Speaker 1: do use. Can you imagine all of her favorites, the
Speaker 1: look they would give everyone else when they go up
Speaker 1: to you to key in, because it wasn't a key,
Speaker 1: it was just the sign. And I suppose also the
Speaker 1: alleged terror that she was reeking over the office that
Speaker 1: no one probably everyone had been too scared to set
Speaker 1: foot in there. Do you think someone's reverse can't get
Speaker 1: the toilet and she's got as like a fuck you?
Speaker 1: I also said, how nervous they are. I'm assuming there
Speaker 1: are a few nervous poos going on. When irritual bow
Speaker 1: going on, there was clearly some unspoken rule, like nobody's
Speaker 1: allowed to do a number two in this toilet. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, you're telling me though, that all that fresh girl,
Speaker 1: healthy living, all that match, they're not using that toilet
Speaker 1: for more than another one. Maybe that's much she wants
Speaker 1: it because she doesn't want it getting out that she's
Speaker 1: done a big work and going on TikTok. But that's why.
Speaker 1: Another startling claim that was made in this documentary was
Speaker 1: accusations of fat phobia. So Jeff Avenue has always positioned
Speaker 1: itself as a company that champions inclusion, and Matilda previously
Speaker 1: told reporters that everyone is worth the same and everyone
Speaker 1: has the right to be seen. Meanwhile, the employees who
Speaker 1: spoke on camera claimed that Matilda allegedly refused to use
Speaker 1: a photo of a plus sized model, saying we have
Speaker 1: to reshoot this because she looks so fucking fat in
Speaker 1: these clothes. We can't show that now. There were also
Speaker 1: further claims of body shaming of employees. So one employee
Speaker 1: stated to one person she said that her butt didn't
Speaker 1: fill out the genes, and to another she said her
Speaker 1: butt filled up the genes too much. So she was
Speaker 1: comparing employees in different pairs of jeans. It's got like
Speaker 1: the Goldilocks. One too hot, one with two cold, and
Speaker 1: one was just right. Well I know, sorry, I don't
Speaker 1: mean to laugh at this, but it's just absolutely insane.
Speaker 1: There was a movie when somebody puts across just such
Speaker 1: a different image of line. Well, another employee has also
Speaker 1: come out and said that employees were exploited if they
Speaker 1: had an appearance that didn't fit the norm. So what
Speaker 1: she's saying there is that some employees who were plus
Speaker 1: size or of a different ethnicity, they were heavily featured
Speaker 1: on the company's social media accounts because they thought it
Speaker 1: looked really good to be saying, oh, we've got a
Speaker 1: very inclusive working force here. But again she said it
Speaker 1: wasn't genuine. They didn't treat those people with respect. I'm
Speaker 1: actually not that surprised because I think if you looked
Speaker 1: into a lot of other companies closer, you would find
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of virtue signaling going on, and
Speaker 1: that's why people get frustrated by it, because it does
Speaker 1: seem just not genuine. In this case, it clearly isn't,
Speaker 1: because this isn't something that she stands for now all
Speaker 1: Matilda was notably absent from this documentary. We didn't hear
Speaker 1: from her, she didn't provide a statement for the documentary,
Speaker 1: and the journalist Joanna said that she had barely started
Speaker 1: her investigation when Geoff Avenue reached out to her. Questioning
Speaker 1: why she had asked former employees about their working environment.
Speaker 1: Maybe one of the girls that got the key to
Speaker 1: the toilet snitch Now. Joanna immediately suggested lining up an
Speaker 1: interview with Matilda to share her side of the story,
Speaker 1: and the company flat out said no.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The journalists also mentioned in her piece to camera in
Speaker 1: this documentary that the workplace problems were well known to
Speaker 1: Jeff Avenue's HR and management team, yet nothing was done.
Speaker 1: She alleges when the employees spoke to HR and the CEO,
Speaker 1: they said, it's always been like this and that's just
Speaker 1: the way it is. They also allegedly retorted, what do
Speaker 1: you want us to do? We can't fire Matilda. So
Speaker 1: is Matilda just the founder of the company or does
Speaker 1: she actually have a specific role within it. Well, a
Speaker 1: lot of publications are reporting that she's the CEO, but
Speaker 1: she is actually the co founder. So they've employed someone
Speaker 1: else to act as the CEO. Probably a wise move.
Speaker 1: Most people would do that and employ a CEO. I
Speaker 1: know at Kick, their co founder, Laura Henshaw is actually
Speaker 1: the CEO, which makes more sense because she has got
Speaker 1: a background in law and she's very intelligent. But I
Speaker 1: actually think listening to her podcast recently that she's going
Speaker 1: to handle that job onto someone else and focus on
Speaker 1: because her days looks so stressful whenever she posts about them,
Speaker 1: like God, she works hard. We're getting back to Jeff Avenue.
Speaker 1: I was so enraged when I heard the HR just
Speaker 1: stood back and did nothing for these employees, particularly if
Speaker 1: you look at Amy and my story. We had terrible
Speaker 1: treatment from the HR team at our former employer, and
Speaker 1: a lot of the time, unfortunately, they are just there
Speaker 1: to protect the employer and not the employee. So it
Speaker 1: made me so sad to see that these women, these
Speaker 1: young women, had come forward trying to make change in
Speaker 1: this awful and toxic workplace environment and they were just ignored.
Speaker 1: And I just want to say, it's so brave that
Speaker 1: they've actually found the courage to come out and make
Speaker 1: these claims, particularly against someone who is so powder. The
Speaker 1: best thing is that the reaction has been so good
Speaker 1: from the public. People are believing these women, and people
Speaker 1: are going, fuck you, Matilda, I'm not going to follow
Speaker 1: you well. Matilda did release a statement acknowledging the seriousness
Speaker 1: of the claims, so she apologized for any negative experiences
Speaker 1: her employees had endured and expressed her commitment to fostering
Speaker 1: a respectful work She said, I take the criticism that
Speaker 1: has come forward very seriously and want to be clear
Speaker 1: that a safe and respectful work environment is crucial for me,
Speaker 1: both as a person and the founder of Jeff Avenue.
Speaker 1: She continued. If any staff member has felt mistreated or
Speaker 1: ill equipped in their role due to my actions, that
Speaker 1: is something I am truly sorry for and apologize for.
Speaker 1: It was never my intention to contribute to a work
Speaker 1: environment that negatively affects anyone, and I am sorry that
Speaker 1: there are employees who have had such experiences. She also
Speaker 1: went on to say that she didn't recognize herself in
Speaker 1: the claims and is choosing not to comment on individual cases.
Speaker 1: She said, however, I think it's valuable that this is highlighted,
Speaker 1: as it gives both me and Jeff Avenue the opportunity
Speaker 1: to develop and become better. I want to emphasize that
Speaker 1: I take my responsibility and see this as an opportunity
Speaker 1: to reflect, develop and contribute to a better culture for
Speaker 1: all my employees at Jeff Avenue. I will work actively
Speaker 1: with my leadership and, among other things, continue to receive
Speaker 1: support from a coach The Sweetest Location also spoke to
Speaker 1: the COO of Jurff Avenue, Panila, Bonnie, who said the
Speaker 1: company is aware of areas in need of development, including leadership.
Speaker 1: Bonnie also confirmed that Matilda does have a private toilet,
Speaker 1: describing it as a measure to help keep the influencer healthy.
Speaker 1: She said our office makes it possible to offer this
Speaker 1: solution without affecting other employees access to facilities, and that
Speaker 1: the note will remain in place. She also clarified that
Speaker 1: she believes it's not reasonable that an employee had to
Speaker 1: clean a bathroom outside their job description. She said she
Speaker 1: wants to make it clear that such a situation should
Speaker 1: never occur. So I can't get my head around this
Speaker 1: toilet business. So are you telling me that there's a
Speaker 1: row of cubicles and there's a sign on one door
Speaker 1: that says no one else's life is there in a
Speaker 1: private room. It's separate. It's a private room far away
Speaker 1: from the other toilet. Well, I'm not proximity, but we
Speaker 1: just saw a white door that wasn't a cubical door,
Speaker 1: but a white separate toilet door. Now, is it the
Speaker 1: same toilet that she's taken off I'm not sure. I
Speaker 1: want to know if this has happened in any other
Speaker 1: people's workplace. Are their private toilets in other businesses? Yeah? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean what also really stood out to me about
Speaker 1: Matilda's statement is that she didn't really refute any of
Speaker 1: the claims, No, just sort of acknowledged them. I mean,
Speaker 1: to me, that screams that all of this happened allegedly,
Speaker 1: and it's like, it wasn't my intention. It makes people
Speaker 1: feel bad. It wasn't really poor response, isn't it. It wasn't
Speaker 1: my intention to be a total jerk and terrorize the office.
Speaker 1: Do you guys think she'll be able to come back
Speaker 1: from this? Well, since the scandal broke, some of Matilda's
Speaker 1: most devoted fans have vowed to boycott jerf Avenue. So
Speaker 1: there's all these videos of young women wearing the signature
Speaker 1: dressing gown that are going viral, and they're asking their
Speaker 1: audience what they're planning on doing with all of their
Speaker 1: jerf Avenue items now, and underneath one of these videos,
Speaker 1: I thought it was very telling because a follower wrote,
Speaker 1: I have so many items from her, and I love
Speaker 1: my tote bag because it was so big but it
Speaker 1: says jef Avenue on it, so I'm embarrassed to wear it.
Speaker 1: Does that mean some of these fruit dressing games going on,
Speaker 1: you could probably get a dupe from somewhere else.
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's kind of like when Chloe Zepp everyone
Speaker 1: was selling their stuff or burning their zep So you
Speaker 1: don't want to be seen in it, No you don't,
Speaker 1: but I mean I'm not going out in public and
Speaker 1: addressing it. Well, still a cute dressing guy. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't want to support her, but I'll get one
Speaker 1: dirt cheek. I was really intrigued to see how this
Speaker 1: scandal actually affected her follow account because since then, on
Speaker 1: Instagram she's lost over fifty thousand followers, and on her
Speaker 1: jurf Instagram account she's lost twelve thousand. It's not heaps
Speaker 1: considering that she has four millions. Yeah. Well, it hasn't
Speaker 1: actually even affected her teaktok following, so she's continuing to
Speaker 1: steadily gain followers like normal. Her accounts have been flooded, though,
Speaker 1: with fans expressing their disappointment. So one fan wrote, unfortunately unfollowing,
Speaker 1: terrible behavior of you if you can't see your employees
Speaker 1: as fellow humans. How are you supposed to see your
Speaker 1: fans as one Exposing others to bullying and harassment is
Speaker 1: completely mindless. Remember we are living in the year twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. You need to take responsibility for your behavior
Speaker 1: and get down to earth a bit. I think the
Speaker 1: reason why we haven't seen more people unfollow Matilda Jerf
Speaker 1: is because she's one of those huge influences, a bit
Speaker 1: like Kim Kardashian where people will just follow her because
Speaker 1: she's a huge influencer. The follows as well, now yeah,
Speaker 1: and they're not as invested in her life. I think
Speaker 1: a large amount of the people who have unfollowed her
Speaker 1: are the die hard Matilda Jurf fans, which actually speaks
Speaker 1: volumes because they're saying, I'm not putting up with this shit.
Speaker 1: I actually follow you and used to respect you, and
Speaker 1: now I've hit Those are the unfollows that are going
Speaker 1: to be most damaging to her and her brand, because
Speaker 1: those are the people that actually genuinely convert to sales. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And also, I have noticed a trend. We spoke about
Speaker 1: it probably months ago now on the podcast, but a
Speaker 1: lot of people who end up trolling influencers were once
Speaker 1: fans of those influences, and as soon as that parasocial
Speaker 1: relationship changes because a lot of people are like, Wow,
Speaker 1: we thought we knew her, but she's totally different, and
Speaker 1: they will then turn into the people that investigate her,
Speaker 1: remove and talk about tatle Lie. I know a lot
Speaker 1: about her, they've got AMMO, and they essentially probably now
Speaker 1: want to continue to bring her down. The whole thing
Speaker 1: is quite comical in the sense that people are like,
Speaker 1: She's not what I thought she would be. Like, what
Speaker 1: some absolute glamazon girl who is rich and has everything
Speaker 1: that she wants isn't a nice person? I am utterly shocked. Well,
Speaker 1: that's when it comes across like a high school bulld
Speaker 1: like someone who thinks that they're better than everyone. The
Speaker 1: whole clean girl aesthetic too thing. It's quite funny with
Speaker 1: this toilet scandal because it is like everyone else is
Speaker 1: so filthy. I need my clean space away from everyone.
Speaker 1: I think it is too soon to know the financial
Speaker 1: hit that this is going to have on Jeff Avenue.
Speaker 1: I really don't know how they can come back from
Speaker 1: this and rebuild, because, as we've said, it's at the
Speaker 1: point where it's embarrassing if you look like you're publicly
Speaker 1: supporting this brand and their designs are so recognizable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but scandals happen so quickly, especially on TikTok, like this
Speaker 1: will probably be forgotten by next month. I think Jeff
Speaker 1: Avenue will be known as a mean girl brand from now. Yeah.
Speaker 1: People aren't going to buy into the shit as well,
Speaker 1: like all their virtue signaling, because before it's oh, it's
Speaker 1: about inclusion, and I mean I think Genzetta's in particular
Speaker 1: are very ethical when it comes to the brands that
Speaker 1: they want to support, and they don't want to particularly
Speaker 1: the fat phobic claims as well. See I think it's
Speaker 1: outrage culture and then people go, oh, but I really
Speaker 1: like that. Well that's where we're going to leave things today.
Speaker 1: If you do love the show, please leave us a
Speaker 1: review and on Thursday we'll be back in your ears
Speaker 1: with our Christmas special with Leah. It's seen us. I'm
Speaker 1: very excited for us. That's a good one. This episode
Speaker 1: was recorded on the traditional land of the Ghana people
Speaker 1: of the Adelaide Planes. We pay respect to elders past
Speaker 1: and present,